The 2,000-Year-Old Energy Drink From Ancient Rome
We all know it’s good to hydrate. Water can be so boring though. So when I’m trying to rehydrate after a long run in the summer heat, I tend to reach for an old-timey solution: The energy drink of ancient Rome.
The Romans were famed for their innovations in military
logistics, which allowed them to extend their territory from Rome and its
immediate surrounds to the whole Mediterranean and ultimately, with the
establishment of the Roman Empire, virtually all of western Eurasia. But an
army can’t win if it’s thirsty. Enter . This blend of vinegar and water—and
possibly salt, herbs, and other stuff—holds a special place in beverage history
thanks to its role as the Gatorade of the Roman army.
It’s possible was Greek in origin. Its name may have derived
from the Greek word epoxos, which means “very sharp,” according to The
Logistics of the Roman Army at War, by Jonathan Roth, historian at San Jose
State University. But the beverage owes its fame to the small, but essential,
part it played in the Roman army’s legendary efficiency. As early as the middle
of the Roman Republic era (509-27 BCE), the military rationed to troops along with grains and, very
occasionally, meat and cheese. That policy continued for centuries, well into
the Roman Empire.
Roman soldiers did, of course, drink water. But
historical records suggest that it wasn’t their beverage of choice. Consider
what Plutarch wrote about how Cato the Elder, an officer during the Second
Punic War (218-202 BCE), dealt with his thirst, according to Roth:
Water was what he drank on his campaigns, except that
once in a while, in a raging thirst, he would call for vinegar, or when his
strength was failing, would add a little wine.
Like Cato, Romans prized wine for its supposed health benefits, as Rod Phillips, a historian at Carleton University in Ottawa, writes in his book Wine: A Social and Cultural History of the Drink That Changed Our Lives. That made —which contained vinegar made from wine gone bad—vastly preferable to plain old H20. And wine, at the time, was plentiful. Rich Romans put back titanic volumes of it. As the reach of Roman imperialism spread throughout Europe, viticulture followed, which “gave their armies ready access to wine depots almost everywhere,” writes Phillips.
For military officials, off-wine was a cheap source of
calories to distribute in bulk. Diluting it with water to make “effectively doubled the volume of liquid
ration given to the soldiers at a very low cost,” observes Roth.
There probably was something to the Romans’ belief in ’s
health benefits. The drink’s acidity and slight alcohol content would likely
have neutralized bacteria, making it safer than drinking straight water. That
could have been a big benefit, given that tainted water has been known to
ravage armies more effectively than battle. Vinegar was also thought to help
stave off that scourge of militaries throughout history—scurvy. (It doesn’t, as
it turns out. But Ancient Romans were hardly the only ones to misplace faith in
vinegar’s antiscorbutic virtues; as late as the mid-1800s, the US Army rationed
apple cider vinegar to troops stationed in America’s southwest during the
Mexican War, according to Roth.)
Mind you, military leaders and other elites generally
didn’t deign to drink , which was more a drink of the common people, according
to Pass the Garum, a fantastic blog dedicated to exploring Roman cuisine. When
Roman emperor Hadrian wanted to slum it with his soldiers, this would have been
his drink of choice. As Pass the Garum notes, the ancient historian Suetonius
mentions vendors selling on the streets
during the early years of the Roman Empire. Both among soldiers and common
folk, continued to enjoy favour well into
the Middle Ages, writes Andrew Dalby, a renowned historian of Greek and Roman
cuisines, in Food in the Ancient World from A to Z.
Aside from slaking Roman thirst, ’s other main claim to fame arises from its controversial cameo in the Bible. As Jesus Christ was suffering crucifixion—or possibly just before, at Golgotha—Roman soldiers offered him sips of the stuff from a sponge held aloft with a reed, according to Matthew 27:48. Depending on the interpretation, they did this either to help lessen his anguish or to needle him, notes Phillips. Whatever the case, Jesus wasn’t having it. “After tasting the Christ refused to drink it,” writes Phillips.
So what did taste like? It’s a little hard to say. Due to
its ubiquity in Roman literature of the day, we can safely conclude that it
involved some ratio of water and red wine vinegar. But might it also have
featured other flavours? History isn’t very helpful on that score, since no
Roman recipes exist.
Thanks to Byzantine medical writers, however, we’re not
totally in the dark. Aëtius of Amida and Paul of Aegina, both Byzantine Greek
physicians of the sixth and seventh centuries, respectively, included recipes
for a “palatable and laxative” that
included cumin, fennel seed, celery seed, anise, thyme, and salt, according to
another book by Dalby, Tastes of Byzantium: The Cuisine of a Legendary Empire.
(However, Dalby complicates the matter somewhat by noting that the word they
used, the Greek loanword phouska, may by that time have become a catchall term
for second-rate wine substitutes.)
Adding herbs and sweeteners push in the direction of more familiar old-school
vinegar-based drinks like switchel, sekanjabin, and shrub. Throw in salt, and
you have the combo of carbohydrates and sodium used in Gatorade and other
modern sports drinks that help you recover the water and salts lost during
exercise (or from simply sweating a lot). That makes sense: tromping around
Europe and Asia Minor while saddled with armour and packs was undoubtedly sweaty
work.
As for modern-day perspirers, why buy commercial sports
drinks to slake your thirst when you can make the Gatorade of the ancients?
While the scribes of antiquity haven’t left us a lot to go on, that hasn’t
stopped food bloggers and Roman enthusiasts—and me—from trying. For anyone
wanting to join in, here are a few recipes and guidelines to get you started.
Make sure to use brewed vinegar only—red wine, black, balsamic, or apple cider,
for example—and not distilled.
Though we have only the faintest hint that was sweetened, lots of recipes call for
honey—like ”Sharp-but-sweet ” from Pass the Garum:
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
250ml water
1 tbsp honey
According to this recipe, honey should first be melted
in the microwave for about 20 seconds, and then added to the water and stirred.
Then add the vinegar.
If you want something a little “sharper,” this recipe,
from the site Romae Vitam, calls for a much higher proportion of vinegar to
water, as well as crushed coriander seeds:
1.5 cups of red wine vinegar
0.5 cups of honey
1 tablespoon of crushed coriander seed
4 cups of water
The recipe calls for boiling the honey and letting it
cool before combining. Also, make sure to strain out the crushed coriander
before drinking.
My own–making is guided not by zeal for ancient Rome,
but, rather because I’m really thirsty. So while my concoction was inspired by
what I learned from a lecture on ancient Roman cuisine a few years back, it has
since strayed from the more authentic recipes listed above. I’ll still use
diluted apple cider vinegar, if it’s handy, but I’ll sometimes go with homemade
kombucha. And instead of honey, I prefer a glug of maple syrup (less messy).
Also, usually, a little salt. And definitely a ton of ice. I’m not sure if you
can still call that . But whatever it is, on a hot day, it sure hits the spot.
NOTE: This post originally appeared on Quartz and was published September 2,